Summer School Saved With Bank's Donation
Posted on: Friday, 22 July 2005, 15:00 CDT
FAIR LAWN - When the school budget failed at the polls this year, officials warned that the resulting cuts would directly affect students.
One of the most visible cuts was the district's summer school, which provided remedial and enrichment classes to nearly 500 students.
But a portion of the summer classes that provided math and reading help to elementary students has been revived, thanks in part to a last-minute, $2,000 donation from Commerce Bank.
The end of the summer school meant parents faced sending their students out-of-district, where they would pay much higher fees for classes. The Fair Lawn Community School agreed to take over remedial classes for elementary students, but was forced to raise fees to $110 from $85, said Joseph Tedeschi, head of the school.
But just weeks before classes were to start, Tedeschi said, only four students had signed up, and parents were calling and complaining about the increased fees.
"We just weren't getting any enrollment," Tedeschi said. "We held it open and held it open and were ready to cancel."
After Tedeschi mentioned the problem to Michael Kahn, the manager for a Commerce Bank branch in Fair Lawn, Commerce agreed to put up $2,000, enough to subsidize the majority of fees for the classes. Nearly 60 students who need extra help in math and science have been attending two-week sessions.
"If you take three months off for some of these kids, they unlearn," Tedeschi said.
Commerce officials said the summer classes fit with the bank's new focus on donating to educational programs. The grant supplements another new summer reading program rolled out in 20 schools in Bergen, Passaic and Essex counties, said Gregg Gerken, a senior vice president. In the program, students who read 10 books receive $10 to put into Commerce savings accounts.
"We saw the need here, and this was our corporate mandate," Gerken said.
The elementary students join students already enrolled in another day camp run by the Community School called Camp FLAIR, which has about 175 kids.
In April, voters turned down the school budget of $69.5 million and $501,115 in proposed additional spending, just the second time in 13 years the budget failed. The Borough Council then trimmed about $800,000 from the budget, and the district identified programs to cut.
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E-mail: hsu@northjersey.com
Source: Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
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